Mixed Signals
by Noritsu
Summary: Story focuses on the boat rescue. It's not Penny's boat, but it's not Naomi's boat either. I've tweaked the tail end of the events at the radio tower and written an intro for Season 4. Jayid, Hurley, Kate and a minor mix of the other Losties. Oneshot.


**Author's Note:** This fic was inspired by a news story I read (I _know_ I read it _somewhere_) that the writers were seriously considering writing Michael back into the show for the fourth season. Also, I couldn't bring myself to let Charlie die, so although he's only in this fic by mention, he's still alive. (Yay!) Also, there's some mild cursing in this fic. **  
**

**LOST**

**Mixed Signals**

Authoress: Noritsu

Disclaimer

I **do not** own the LOST characters, or the LOST universe. They are copyrighted and belong to Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Bad Robot, and ABC.

The storyline, however, is mine. So, no pilfering, please. Thanks.

**TUN** Publishing Company

October, 2007

**T**he**U**sual**N**onsense

**Mixed Signals**

Jack stood, with arms outstretched, defiantly staring down John Locke.

"Go ahead John, shoot me."

John's hand wavered under Jack's angry glare. He was all too aware of the other castaways watching him. If he pulled the trigger they would most likely rush him and take him down. Someone else would grab the satellite phone and he would end up failing anyway.

This was besides the fact that Danielle had a rifle, and Kate was probably packing a gun.

In Jack's hand, the phone sprang to life with a voice.

"Hello? Hello?"

Jack didn't answer, but kept his eyes trained on Locke.

Locke finally faltered and dropped his arm. He hobbled away and headed toward the radio tower.

"Hello?" Jack said, bringing the phone next to his face. "This is Jack. I'm one of the survivors of flight 815. Can you get a fix on our location?"

"Jack?" the voice came back, "this is Michael. Hell, yeah we can get a fix! Don't worry, we're coming for you!"

Relief flooded Jack's face and his fellow survivors began cheering.

"We'll be waiting for you at the beach," Jack replied.

He closed his eyes and dropped his arm down against his side.

Finally! They were going home.

lostlostlost

The mood in the camp was somber as everyone scrambled to finish packing.

Sayid had told Jack over the walkie-talkie that if it was alright with everyone else, they'd get a head start on breaking down everyone's shelters, and packing all their belongings into the suitcases and backpacks they had kept. Jack and the others agreed that they were fine with this. If most of their stuff was ready to go by the time they got back to the beach, they could leave that much sooner.

Sayid had made Sawyer promise, in front of Hurley, Bernard, and Juliet that he wouldn't rifle through everyone's things looking for stuff he could steal, and horde.

But there was another, more pressing reason for the pall that lay on their minds as they went about their tasks.

Off to the right side of the camp lay Charlie, very ill, while Desmond hovered over him like a frightened parent. Desmond had somehow fished Charlie out of the small com room, towed him back up into the station proper, and performed both the Heimlich maneuver, to empty his lungs of water, and CPR to revive him.

Even though Desmond had found an oxygen tank, and mask, to slap on him for the swim up to the surface, Charlie's breathing was still shallow. He was also terribly pale, and was suffering from a fever.

After helping the two to return to their camp, Sayid had walkied Jack and Kate back and asked them to step off to the side so he could talk to them in private. He informed them of Charlie's condition, and Charlie's message to Desmond, and asked if they couldn't somehow find a way to hurry along the trek back to the camp without alarming Claire, or the others, as to the grave situation they were dealing with. The two of them told him not to worry; they'd make every effort to hasten the trip.

Straightening up to give his aching back a rest, Sayid decided to walk down to the shoreline and check on Hurley. The big guy was standing shotgun over the horizon with a pair of compact binoculars he'd confiscated from one of the dead Others.

"Anything yet?" Sayid asked.

Hurley shook his head. "Nada." He turned to smile at Sayid. "No worries, dude. As soon as I see them, I guarantee you I'll start screaming."

Sayid smiled and nodded in understanding. He turned and walked a short way down the beach in the direction he was expecting Jack and company to return from. In spite of the fact that he knew not nearly enough time had passed for them to be anywhere close to the beach, he still found himself fighting against an entirely illogical need to somehow will Jack – through osmosis, or telekinesis, or whatever – closer to him than where he was now. He had no way of knowing whether these 'not Penny's boat' people were more hostiles, or whether they were, in fact, friendly. The only thing Jack had been able to tell him was that someone named Michael had spoken to him on the phone, and that Locke had killed Naomi. He was feeling somewhat apprehensive as to what their rescuer's reaction would be to this particular bit of news. It certainly wouldn't help to speed up the process of gaining sympathy for them at the outset.

Sayid lingered just a moment longer before finally turning to head back to the camp proper and continue helping the rest to pack up. As he did, an unbidden plea rose up in the back of his consciousness.

_Hurry, Jack. Hurry. _

lostlostlost

Leaves and twigs snapped underfoot as Jack and Kate led their ragtag group back to the beach. It hadn't been hard at all to concoct a story to motivate them with to keep them moving at a steady clip. They had simply told the rest that Hurley was keeping a watchful eye on the horizon and would walkie them when he saw their rescue boat. He had said to them that surely they wanted to get there before their rescuers arrived so they could make certain they had all their belongings in order and were ready to go without much time to lose.

Like Sayid, there was an unvoiced nagging in the back of his mind that had him wondering how their rescuers were going to take the news that Naomi was dead. This Michael person seemed cheery enough over the phone, and Jack hoped that he wouldn't just turn on them the minute he found out.

Although Locke had been cornered behind the base of the tower, and was now – like Ben – a tied up member of their group, there was a small part of Jack that still felt sorry for him. Locke was now carrying the air of someone defeated; a failure. Fortunately, Jack was able to push the sorrow he felt for Locke aside with the larger part of him that was still angry. Locke had tried to keep them in this forsaken place because he thought he was some kind of island picked chosen one that knew what was best for them.

Nothing but time stretched out in front of them as they trudged along, snippets of conversation carrying forward to them now and again. Claire seemed the most worried of their group right now, for unlike Rose and Sun, who knew their husbands were okay, she had heard no news of Charlie at all. Aaron had quieted down a while back, but was still wide awake and whimpering plaintively as though there was something that was still worrying his infant mind. Jack hoped against hope that they wouldn't make it back too late, and the rescuers wouldn't get there too late, to get Charlie on board and get them out of here and back to the safety of the nearest hospital. To that end, Jack had already made up his mind that he would volunteer to stay behind till later, if it meant there would be more room for getting Charlie, Claire and Aaron off as soon as possible.

"Hey."

Jack turned to look at Kate, who was regarding him with a sad smile. He could only imagine what must be going through her mind.

"Kate," he began, but he trailed off, unsure of what to say. After a moment, he tried again. "About being rescued – "

"It's what's best for everyone," she said, cutting his train of thought off.

He looked at her, a mixture of sadness, and regret evident on his face. "Not everyone." He paused, grabbing for words, any words that might comfort her. "Look, I'm almost positive that I could find some strings to pull. If anything, maybe I can get the authorities to hear you out on whatever it is you did and try to get them to understand that you were in a hard place, or you were cornered, or desperate, or whatever – "

"You still don't know what I did."

He stared at the path in front of him as he considered her statement. "Yeah, I know. I just can't see you as the cold-blooded type, Kate. You're just not that kind of person. I have to believe that there were extenuating circumstances for doing whatever it is you did."

"What about the stuff I did after that? Was I justified in doing that other stuff, too?"

Jack sighed. How was he supposed to answer that? He'd seen enough movies to know that when one lived a life on the run you did stuff you wouldn't normally do otherwise. "We'll figure something out," he finally said. "Just…try not to worry too much about it. Maybe we can trade up for your release if we lead them to where the Others are. I refuse to believe that the things they're doing here – tests, experiments, whatever – are all legal and above board. Ben's gotta be a whole lot more valuable than you are."

He paused a moment, and managed to conjure up a sincere smile to send her way. "No offense intended, of course."

She smiled back, in spite of herself, somehow feeling better over Jack's words. Then, she rolled her eyes. "None taken."

They walked on for quite a while yet, in silent contemplation. What would they do once they were back on more familiar terra firma? How could they possibly settle back into any kind of a 'normal' routine life? For Jack's part, his mind turned time and again as to how his mother would react to the fact that her husband's body had gone mysteriously missing. Jack shook his head and let out an audible sigh. There was a part of him that was dreading the re-entry back into polite society.

Kate tapped his arm and he looked up at her. "We're getting close," she said. "Maybe a little over an hour yet. We need to veer off up ahead. It'll take us back to the beach."

He nodded in understanding. Turning around he spoke to Sun, Claire, and Rose who were following immediately behind them. They, in turn, passed the information to the ones behind them, and so on and so forth. By the time the news finally reached the back end of their group, an almost tangible air of excitement had built up around them.

Jack chewed thoughtfully on his lip as the chatter suddenly increased. As much as he wanted to share in the sense of happiness and relief that everyone else was allowing themselves to get caught up in, he had to remind himself that there yet existed the possibility that this whole rescue scenario could go horribly wrong. What if they ended up being no better off than where they were three months ago when they crashed?

It occurred to Jack that perhaps, man of science or no, it might not hurt to indulge in a little prayer, for all their sakes, to whoever might be listening at the moment.

lostlostlost

True to his word, Hurley began jumping, or trying to jump, up and down when he spotted the distance speck on the horizon that he surmised to be the rescue boat.

"They're here, they're here!" he shouted joyfully at the top of his lungs. "Dudes! They're here!"

Jin and Bernard went running. Sayid, Sawyer, and Juliet hung back from the shoreline, regarding Hurley's proclamation with a decidedly skeptical air.

"I think it's time we tell them what Charlie told Desmond," Sayid said.

"Aye, brother," came the reply from an unexpected member of their group.

"Is Charlie alright?" Sayid asked.

The Scotsman shrugged, his eyes locked on the horizon, trying to pick out the small speck of the ship. "As alright as he's gonna be until he gets to a hospital. Or, Jack should know what sorts of antibiotics to put in him until then." His mouth turned down in a frown. "If he ever gets back." Almost wistfully, he turned his gaze in the direction of the beach that he knew Jack would be coming from. It was almost as if he thought Jack might suddenly appear in answer to the voiced comment he'd made.

But Jack wasn't there. Not yet, anyway.

"There is going to be no easy way to break this to them," Sayid said. "I might as well get it over with."

His face set in a determined expression, Sayid walked down to the beach to hand out the last piece of information his friends were expecting to hear. They reacted about as well as he figured they would. The air of excitement turned quickly to puzzlement, and disbelief, tinged with fear.

Why would Naomi lie? What could she possibly hope to gain by pretending that she was working for Desmond's girlfriend? It made no sense at all.

The questions came, piled one on top of another, none of which Sayid could give an answer to. Eventually the questions gave way to a discussion over how they should greet their so-called rescuers. Sawyer was not the least bit hesitant in suggesting that they should each grab themselves a gun, since they had enough from the dead Others, and arm themselves. "Butch and Sundance," he said with a smirk. "I'll be damned if I spent three months in this hell-hole place just to be kidnapped and taken to some other hell-hole place. I say we go out guns blazin', and take as many down with us as we can."

Fortunately, Sawyer's reasoning was shot down by Sayid and, surprisingly, Bernard, who made the rather insightful comment that maybe, just maybe, Naomi had lied about Penny as a way to make an instant connection to them so they wouldn't be afraid of her.

"We should give her the benefit of the doubt," he said. "Maybe she was just afraid that she would spook us if we thought she was some strange unknown quantity. Besides, she came here looking for Desmond, right? She didn't even know _we_ were here. It was Desmond she was looking for."

As if on cue, everyone turned to regard Desmond. The Scotsman's face fell, intuition telling him what they were thinking. "You're going to just throw me to them…" his voice trailed off, disbelief mingling with the hurt tone.

Sawyer leaned in Desmond's direction. "No offense there Scotty, but if givin' you to them saves us…" He, too, allowed his voice to trail off, the implication of the statement dangling from the end of it.

Sayid finally decided it was time to clear his throat. He did so, bringing the attention back onto himself. "I believe you're forgetting one very important fact." He paused. "If Naomi felt she was going to have to lie in order to get Desmond to trust her, then that means that her people are aware that there are hostile entities on the island that Desmond may have had encounters with. Her lie would be the way that she would go about gaining instant trust from him. He would immediately associate her with Penny, someone he loved and trusted, and not the Others."

"So…these people could be…Others…living on the outside?" Bernard asked.

Sayid sighed, pondering Bernard's question for just a moment longer. "I believe that Sawyer is correct. We should arm ourselves."

"Well, hallelujah," Sawyer said. "Small miracles never cease."

"But," Sayid continued, ignoring Sawyer, "we should act with caution. There still exists the possibility that these people will truly help us. To that end, we should also attempt to give them the benefit of the doubt as Bernard suggested."

Everyone was silent while they digested Sayid's instructions. Then, Sawyer spoke up again.

"Caution, smaution, I'm goin' to get the guns."

The conversation over, the group broke up. Hurley went back to watching the horizon, and the rest went back to camp to meet Sawyer and get their guns.

Sayid walked over to Desmond. "I want you to move back further; in past the jungle line. We'll take Charlie back, too. I don't want these people seeing you right off the bat. Plus, it'll give us an advantage if they don't know we have someone in place under cover."

Desmond nodded in understanding and the two headed off after Charlie.

Bernard watched them go from the kitchen area. After a while, it dawned on him that Sayid never actually answered his question.

lostlostlost

Everyone was staring at him.

Curious, and expectant, they watched as he put his hands up to rub his face.

He could feel their eyes boring into his being, and still, he hesitated. He was not going to enjoy this.

Clearing his throat, he began speaking. "Okay, look, I need to tell you all something. Something I know you're going to think I should have told you way back when I found out. But, I didn't want everyone to be weighed down with worry while we were walking back here."

He stopped, long enough to glance over at Kate, who nodded encouragingly for him to keep going. He turned back to the group with a sigh.

"What I need to tell you is about Naomi. When Desmond and Charlie came back from the Looking Glass, Desmond told Sayid that Charlie fielded an incoming message from his girlfriend, Penny. In the course of talking to her, Charlie discovered that – " He stopped, hating what it was that he had to say next, the thing that would drain all hope from them again, after they had just built it back up. "He discovered that Naomi…she lied. She didn't know Penny. The people who are coming for us – ." He stopped again, looked at Kate. Still, she nodded him on. "These people…they might not be as friendly as we initially thought."

Frightened murmurs swept through the group. A few of them turned angry eyes toward him. Rose spoke up first.

"Yes, Jack, it would have been helpful if you would have told us this from the beginning instead of springing it on us just now."

"Look, Rose, everyone, I'm sorry. Try to understand. Would it have made you feel better to have spent the whole trip back having nothing to think about except who these people really are? Whether or not they're sincerely here to rescue us? I didn't want you to drive yourselves sick with worry. There's every chance that these people _are_ really here to rescue us. We don't know why Naomi lied. There could be a completely logical explanation for what she said."

"And that would be?" someone prompted from the back.

Jack ran his hand over his head. "I don't know. I honestly don't know. But Sayid and the rest back at camp are making preparations to deal with this. We _are_ going to deal with this. Somehow."

He paused, racking his brain for something else reassuring that he could say. Fortunately, Kate had already formed an additional reply for him. "When we get back to the camp, everyone who is able bodied and willing to take on this confrontation will remain up front with Jack, Sayid, Sawyer, and I. Everyone else will go to the far back of the camp, and remain there and wait."

"Jack, is Charlie really okay?"

Jack's eyes fell on Claire and Aaron. "Yeah," he answered. "He's at the beach with Desmond." He left it at that. Claire could chew him out later, much later, for having decided to hold back the truth on yet another subject.

A small, brave smile curved the corners of her mouth. "Thanks."

He nodded. "You're welcome."

He looked over at Kate then, making a motion of indication toward her with his hand. "Well, you heard the lady. We'll get through this. We have before, we always do. This time will be no different from the rest. Okay, so…we're here. We're on the beach. All we have to do is…" he turned around and pointed, "keep going that way."

He looked at Kate for confirmation, feeling a bit sheepish. "Right?" he asked her in a low voice.

Kate shook her head and laughed softly. "You're hopeless."

lostlostlost

"It's a ship! Dudes, it's a ship!"

Sayid turned around from where he was discussing things with Sawyer, Desmond, and Juliet to regard Hurley who was running up the beach toward them. With the boat getting closer and Jack not back yet, although it shouldn't be much longer, he felt that they should gather to hash out some sort of plan. The upshot was that Jack and Kate would get back with enough time to spare that they could tweak, or even alter, the plan if need be. The downside was that they would get back with only minutes to spare ahead of the boat and they'd have to be informed of the plan on the fly.

Sayid, of course, was hoping for the former, and not the latter.

"Hurley, what are you shouting? Are you sure?" Sayid asked.

"Yes! Yes! Dudes! It's a big ship! The navy, or marines, or somethin'!"

Hurley grabbed Sayid's hand and dragged him after him down to the shoreline with Sawyer, Desmond, and Juliet trailing behind. Hurley pointed a finger out over the ocean.

Quite clearly, the boat could now be seen, chugging toward them, getting close to an anchoring point, without aide from the binoculars. The boat was a ship. A military type ship.

Sayid put the binoculars up to his eyes. Beside him, Hurley felt compelled to speak again.

"Dude, I don't think Naomi's with _them_."

Sayid had to agree with him. With the binoculars, he could now see that there was a nice, shiny, red and white helicopter perched on the back. Training the binoculars across the side of the ship, his grip on them wavered a bit when he read the words that the letters formed.

Immediately, he pulled the binoculars down from his eyes and handed them to Hurley. He yanked the walkie-talkie from Hurley's waistband and took off down the beach, headed in the direction the rest of the castaways would be coming from.

"Jack! Jack!" he said into the walkie. "Jack, are you there?"

He kept walking, staring intently down the beach. Surely Jack would pop into view around the bend at any moment.

"Sayid? What's wrong? What happened?"

Jack's voice was just barely contained panic masquerading as concerned questions.

"Jack, you're not going to believe this. I can't believe it. I – Jack – ." He stopped, bringing his trek down the beach to a halt. There was only one way he could put what he wanted to say, and that was to just say it flat out. He went to push the button back in so he could talk, and realized that he still had his thumb on it, pressing it. For a fleeting moment, an image of Jack on the other end came to him. Jack was screaming frantically into the walkie, unable to understand why Sayid wasn't answering him. He was probably flipping out by now.

He shook the thought away. "The ship, Jack. It's not a boat, it's a ship. And…we're almost certain that Naomi isn't going to be affiliated with this crew. Jack…it's the coast guard. The coast guard, Jack! I'm guessing from the Pacific Command Center, originating from Hawaii."

He let go of the button, but there was no answer. "Jack, are you there?" Silence. "Jack, you're doing this on purpose! I didn't realize I still had the button pressed down. It was an honest mistake. Now, answer me!"

"Actually, I was just waiting for the screaming to stop on my end. But, it's kind of refreshing to know that it _is_ actually possible to work you into a panic over something."

"Very funny, Jack. When do you think you'll get here? You must be close by now."

"Look up."

Sayid shot a questioning look at the walkie. "What?"

"You're probably looking at the walkie, I'd guess," Jack said. "Look _up_."

Slowly, Sayid brought his eyes up from the walkie. Far down the beach, but still able to be seen, were two small human figures, among many, waving their hands in the air at him.

"Jack, Kate?" Sayid said into the walkie, as if he hadn't already figured out it was them.

"You betcha," Jack answered back. "Give us another fifteen. We'll be there before you know it."

Sayid turned to walk back to his starting place, meeting up again with Hurley not too far from where he was currently standing. Apparently Hurley had dogged his steps, shamelessly eavesdropping on the conversation.

"So…dude…," Hurley began, "like...how do you know about the coast guard stations and stuff."

Sayid couldn't stop his face from reflecting the sudden feeling of amusement that came over him from Hurley's question. He met Hurley's gaze, with a slight good-natured smirk, and a telling look of mirth in his eyes.

A light bulb seemed to go off in Hurley's head. "Oh…right…gotcha…"

lostlostlost

Jack made a point of ignoring Kate as she was swept up in a hug by Sawyer. He ambled over to Juliet and received a quick kiss from her before going off to see to Charlie.

Sayid and Hurley nabbed Claire and Rose and informed the young Aussie of Charlie's condition. Her hurt and anger, at both Desmond and Jack, was compounded by the ring that Hurley pulled from his pocket. Leaving them, and Rose's offer to take Aaron, in the dust, she sprinted off to where Desmond was standing, just at the edge of the jungle line, waiting for her.

Ben and Locke were tied securely to two separate trees on opposing sides of the camp so they couldn't speak to one another.

The guns were redistributed among the rest of the main group.

There was nothing to do now but wait.

Hurley kept his eyes trained on the coast guard ship which had by now successfully dropped anchor. A smaller boat was lowered from the side and several crew members climbed down a drop ladder to get into it. At this distance Hurley couldn't really pick out faces, although he could have told you their hair color if you'd asked him. He kept one ear idly on the conversations behind him, waiting to hear for when Jack's voice showed back up. From time to time he dropped the binoculars and turned around to regard the bustle of the camp's residents as they gathered their belongings and pushed, pulled, and dragged them out from under the protective canopy of trees and down to the beach to wait. It made for a rather comical effect, as though the survivors were 'staking out' the prime shoreline locations in which to stand.

Hurley turned back to the approaching boat, certain this time that it would finally be close enough for him to make out the faces of their rescuers. He was right. And when he lifted the binoculars to his face, his eyes landing on one member of the rescue crew in particular, his blood immediately chilled.

Cursing under his breath, he pulled the binoculars away, and headed back up the beach. Jack's timing was perfect in that he was just coming back from tending to Charlie. Hurley, very unceremoniously, slapped the binoculars into Jack's stomach, informed him that he was no longer on watch duty, he had no interest in greeting 'that freaking backstabber', and stalked off in Charlie's direction without so much as another syllable.

Bewildered was hardly the word for how Jack reacted to Hurley's emotional fit. His eyes wandered off in Sayid's direction who had witnessed the episode and was returning Jack's gaze with a puzzled look of his own.

In tandem, the two began walking toward each other as though a magnet was pulling them together. Jack shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the edge of the water. Sayid shook his head, shrugged as well, and walked with Jack down to the shoreline. It was maddening, this silent way that the two had of talking to each other in times like this, and the exchange wasn't lost on Kate. She extricated herself from Sawyer's grasp, and headed after the two men, wanting to know what was going on and why she was being left out. She watched as Jack looked through the binoculars and then handed them to Sayid. By the time she reached them, they were staring at each other, the expressions on each of their faces speaking more words than a carefully structured sentence ever could. Jack turned to her but she, unlike Sayid, was unable to decipher the meaning in his gaze. Mutely, he handed her the binoculars. She peered through them, and when she did, the reason for Hurley's sudden change of attitude became clear.

She looked at the two men. "I'm going to go tell Sawyer."

Jack and Sayid nodded in understanding. For a long moment neither of them seemed able to verbalize how they were feeling. Then Jack spoke a single sentence, so thoroughly understated that it might have been laughable were it not so tragically ironic.

"This isn't going to be good."

lostlostlost

When he stepped off the boat, he honestly wasn't expecting anyone to throw flower petals at him, or even gather around him and cheer about how happy they were to see him again.

But he certainly wasn't expecting this reaction.

The coast guard captain disembarked first, followed by the second in command, and then he got off, followed by some lower ranking personnel who fanned out on either side of him and the captain.

The silly grin he was wearing faded quickly as he walked forward up the beach and noticed, really noticed, how his former fellow castaways were looking at him. They were all wearing serious expressions. There wasn't a happy face in the bunch. A few were looking at him with something resembling suspicion, but surely they couldn't think… Could they?

The only noticeable exception was Sawyer. He was glaring daggers at him, not even trying to hide the emotions bubbling under the surface.

The grim mood did not go unnoticed by the captain, as didn't the direction in which their gazes were cast. He felt the captain's own gaze turn toward him and, for the first time, he felt nervous like he'd just taken a giant misstep, or made some terrible miscalculation.

"They don't seem too happy to see you Mr. Dawson."

Michael ignored the captain's comment as best he could and walked forward a few more steps so he was standing in line with Jack.

"Hi, Jack," he said.

"Hi, Michael," Jack returned.

The exchange fell into an uncomfortable silence as Jack struggled to pick words, any words, out of his consciousness that he could string together to continue the conversation. Why, he didn't know. He really didn't have anything more to say to Michael, for his own part, although he imagined that Hurley might have been able to conjure up a few choice words had he chosen to stick around. He was keenly aware that the rest of the group was watching him, looking to take their cue from him as for how to deal with this situation. If he was being honest with himself, he would wish for Michael to go back on the boat and disappear. Maybe he should just say that.

"Um, you know, when you came through on the satellite phone, I didn't realize it was you. I, uh, just thought it was some guy named Michael."

"Yeah…it…took a while to get back to land in that little boat Ben gave me. But once I did, I didn't waste any time getting to the authorities and letting them know that you were all still alive." He paused for a moment. "You gotta believe me, Jack. It was always my intention to come back for you guys."

He stopped, and waited. What he was hoping for escaped him at the moment. Maybe for a little understanding. Maybe for them to not think of him so harshly.

Jack cleared his throat. "Yeah…and you did…so…I guess we...should be thanking you for that."

Michael nodded his head, unsure of how to respond to that. They should be thanking him…but apparently, they couldn't quite, not without it sounding hollow, like a forced lie.

The captain stood silent next to him, watching curiously as he went grasping for straws. "Look, Jack, I know what I did – ."

That did it.

"No, Michael," Jack said, shaking his head. "You have no idea what you did. _No idea._ When you left – . What you did – . You have _no_ idea what you caused." Jack stopped long enough to turn slightly and glance at Sayid, while he ran his hand over the top of his head. Sayid picked up the look, and understood its meaning. It was time for him to step in. Jack was at a loss; he didn't want to deal with this particular thread of ancient history anymore.

"Perhaps it would be best if you went back to the boat, Michael."

Michael's gaze slid over to Sayid and then back to Jack. But Jack was finding something down in the sand behind Sayid's feet rather fascinating, and was therefore no longer available for comment. Had it been anyone else that Sayid was addressing, they might have thought that Sayid was simply making a friendly suggestion. _These people don't like you anymore, you'd best get out of harm's way. _But Michael remembered Sayid, how he spoke, how he worked. The friendly seeming suggestion was actually a pleasantly veiled threat. _**None**__ of us like you anymore, and unless you want to end up as shark food, you'll leave. _

So this was the way it was going to be, then. Michael nodded, and poked his thumb behind him. "I'm just gonna…go back inside and wait."

Sayid smiled. "I believe that would be for the best."

Michael's jaw worked in anger at the forced again pleasantry, but he said nothing. Turning on his heel, he headed back to the boat.

With Michael gone, the dark mood lifted a bit, and Jack and Sayid approached the captain, hands extended for a welcoming shake.

"I can't tell you how glad we are that you've come for us," Jack said. "Some of us were beginning to think that we were never going to get off this island. I'm Jack, by the way. Jack Shepard. This is Sayid Jarrah."

The captain inclined his head toward Sayid. "Well, Mr. Shepard, if it weren't for your frie – I mean, Mr. Dawson, you most likely would still be here. There were pictures all over the news and in the paper showing your plane at the bottom of the ocean."

Jack took a deep breath and let it out. "That's what Naomi said. I can't believe it. Why would somebody fake pictures of us on the seafloor?"

"I really can't say, Mr. Shepard. Someone didn't want your visit to end, perhaps. Nevertheless, we are here now. And seeing as how you are some of our own, you can rest assured, we will see that you get back to the States via Hawaii."

Jack smiled. "Actually, we have a couple of people from the Mother Country, and a girl from Australia, too."

"It will all be taken care of Mr. Shepard."

"If I may," Sayid said, breaking into the conversation, "Captain, do you have anyone on your ship named Naomi?"

"Naomi…" the captain said thoughtfully. He took a few moments searching his mind through all the names of his crew. "No, I don't have anyone assigned to my command named Naomi."

Sayid looked at Jack. "The phone?"

Jack handed the phone over. "Does this look familiar to you?" Sayid asked the captain.

The captain took the satellite phone and turned it over several times, studying it. "No. This is quite a high tech phone. Very nice. But it's not one of ours." He turned to one of his personnel. "May I have your satellite phone for a moment?" he asked. The officer dutifully turned the phone over. The captain handed them both to Sayid. "You see," he continued, "there are similarities, yes, but this is most definitely a private issue phone. Ours of course, is clearly branded as military."

Sayid nodded in agreement. Yes, both phones were state-of-the-art. Both were grey, with a digital screen. But there were differences to be seen to the trained eye. And, as the captain said, the coast guard phone was clearly marked.

"A few days ago, a young woman parachuted onto the island. This is the phone she had with her. _This_ is the phone which Jack spoke to Michael on. Please forgive me for being compelled to ask you this again. Are you certain there is no one on your crew named Naomi? A last minute addition, perhaps?"

The captain gave Sayid a patient smile. "I have commanded this crew for the last three years. I know every name as well as I know the back of my own hand. I can assure you, that unless she somehow got aboard as a stowaway, she was not on my ship. And she most certainly did not make use of my helicopter. As you can see, ours is still quite attached to the cutter's deck."

Jack and Sayid looked at each other, troubled thoughts clouding the expressions of their faces. The captain made an intuitive guess as to what they were thinking.

"Gentlemen, if there are other persons here searching for you also, then I can only say that I'm glad we intercepted your signal first. I would also like to suggest, that in light of this situation, we waste no time in getting your people on board so we can begin the task of heading back to the mainland."

"I don't think that's gonna happen."

Startled, Jack, Sayid, and the captain turned toward the sound of the voice. They had been so engrossed in their conversation that they hadn't realized that Hurley had returned to join them. "There's another ship."

Jack nodded his head. "Yeah. That's why we need to follow captain's orders, and start loading up _now_."

Hurley shook his head, and extended his arm forward, forefinger pointing out over the ocean. Even before he spoke again, Jack knew what Hurley was going to say. He felt his heart drop into the bottom of his stomach as he followed the line-of-sight from Hurley's outstretched arm and finger to where it landed on the horizon. This couldn't happen. Not now. Not when they were so close. Not when they were standing within mere inches of getting out of this forsaken place.

"No…dudes…_there's another ship,_" Hurley repeated.

Indeed, there was another ship. And it was heading straight for the coast guard cutter.

Sitting far behind them, tied to a tree, totally forgotten at the moment, sat Ben. He twisted and struggled against his bonds so he could peer around the tree to where Hurley was standing, pointing. He, too, followed Hurley's indication out to the spot on the horizon where another ship was approaching.

And then he smiled.

finis

* * *

For those of you wondering why I referred to Naomi's 'boat' as a ship, here's the reason why -

Desmond & crew saw two helicopters the evening Naomi crashed. During all the conversing with her that was subsequently done she never mentioned that her and the other pilot choppered in from land - i.e.: Australia, Fiji, Hawaii. This leaves me with the impression that they choppered in from the 'boat'. I have serious doubts that a boat could support the weight of a helicopter, much less two. Therefore I'm calling Naomi's 'boat' a ship. I'll be very interested to see just what kind of watercraft shows up in the season premiere.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed my little story.

Please review if you are so moved.

TTFN, Nori  
_what's a garden without guava?_


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